Ok, so I reversed my own recent decision and am on my first Canadian whiskey (it's Thursday) under the guidance of my physician, Kris. The title is from a line from a recent catchy and "militaristic" music video, spoilered.

Also, my standard disclaimer. The points of view I espouse on this forum and particularly in this thread in no way represent American policy, stances from the U.S. Department of Defense, positions of the European Council, fan dances of Mata Hari, or the squat that my dog Shredder takes.

TOPIC. There is an undeclared cold war by the Chinese against the West, and America in particular.

I had read some details about this initially on Wired's "Danger Room" linking the Chinese to the 2003 blackout, where I had thought it was simply a cover-up by Microsoft regarding the electrical grid's SCADA systems being partially compromised by the Blaster worm. I recall years ago arguing with someone on those Computerworld forums that NOBODY would be stupid enough to make SCADA systems directly accessible from the Internet, and even if they did, they would never be so stupid as to have those same systems running Microsoft products. Obviously I was quite wrong, and I overestimated American wisdom in a gigantic fashion.

The more I looked, the more I realized that we currently are experiencing something several magnitudes greater than the French electronic war of a couple of decades ago. China really IS attacking us outright, and not just to steal trade secrets or silence dissidents.

I'm going to have to resume this later; I just had a marathon phone-call and the fambly wants me to eat and do errands.

I wouldn't call that a war, but scheming and sabotage, perhaps a bit of terrorism, together with criminal activity. In short, it's businessas usual, with its extent matching the opportunities given through the internet. It could be called war in a metaphorical way, however.

I'm interested to see how Chinese-American relations go forth with both of them having to deal with North Korea becoming ever more hostile. Neither country can invade North Korea without huge consequences...nor does anyone truly believe the North would ever fire a nuke. It's a mess.

Not sure if any nations with nukes will ever mess with each other above a certain threshold, thanks to good ol' mutually assured destruction. I do believe, though, that a SHTF moment is inevitable, in one form or another. I'll bet jmervn's got a chicken strapped to the chopping block out back as we speak. Probably has a hatchet pressed real hard to its neck, ready to employ those SHTF skills.

Wars can be limited, cold, and even non-violent. For those who haven't heard, "War is the continuation of Politik by other means" - Clausewitz

Also worth knowing for the neophyte, though not always germane to the discussion: The Principles of War - MOOSEMUSS

Mass

Offensive

Objective

Surprise

Economy of force

Maneuver

Unity of command

Security

Simplicity

Our primary enemy that I'm thinking about here is China. There's a number of other nations who could be considered 'at war' with America, such as Iraq, Pakistan, North Korea and maybe even Saudi Arabia, but none of those are serious geopolitical threats even though North Korea is still officially fighting us. I'm not including the possibility of one of them conducting a nuclear strike, or worse yet, an EMP attack, because despite the potentially devastating result these would still be one-off attacks rather than the sustained geopolitical conflict that I wanted to discuss.

Right now, one of the main attacks against the U.S. is remarkably wise - the use of our own consumer greed against us. China continues to manipulate their currency in order to prevent market economics's results from hurting them. If the renminbi was allowed to appreciate, Chinese cost of goods goes way up, and they become less competitive against other products. What boggled my mind was that apparently we continue to give China foreign aid - $10M according to one Romney speech - that we're borrowing FROM them!

Secretary of State Kerry (puke) claims that we must continue our program of foreign aid, but what does it actually achieve? Many of the countries that receive it are certainly no friends of America. I hardly think what amounts to outright bribery of these countries' leadership, and in pretty much no way benevolence to the foreign populace, is a smart investment.

I'll bet jmervn's got a chicken strapped to the chopping block out back as we speak. Probably has a hatchet pressed real hard to its neck, ready to employ those SHTF skills.

Click to expand...

Well, I only have two chickens left - predation is a biatch - but we'll be buying 6 more in April or so. Have to buy them in multiples of 6, because New York. We don't eat them (yet).

As for SHTF skills, I'm not as butch as you might imagine. I may or may not have killed a 'coon that ate a bunch of my chickens, and I may or may not have tried to skin it, but if I had skinned it I definitely screwed up attempting to tan the hide.

It's not hell *YET*, unless you're on the receiving end. Plus, there's nobody that I'm aware of hitting any beaches in the traditional fashion.

Still, it qualifies as war under Clausewitz' definition, which is why I provided it. It sure as heck isn't propaganda; I don't believe the Chinese really care what Americans think as long as they stay ignorant.

[h=1]BREAKING: North Korea Launches Short-Range Missiles on East Coast[/h]

North Korea has fired two short-range tactical missiles off its East coast
SEOUL â€“ North Korea has tested short-range missiles in the Sea of Japan (known as the East Sea in Korea), in an apparent attempt to counter-act joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.
â€œNorth Korea test-launched a short-range missile in the East Sea [Sea of Japan] this afternoon, amid the ongoing security crisis on the Korean peninsula following Pyongyangâ€™s third nuclear test last month,â€ Yonhap news said.
The source, Yonhap said, was a military source within the South Korean government. The North Korean military launched two KN-02 short-range missiles into international waters, the report said.

Why is it that fascist gov't always seems to fall into the same pattern? [/rhetorical]

Anyhow, I'm far more interested in what their intentions are regarding <us>, as in the West. One of the books I'm reading (slowly) is a somewhat obscure military treatise by a couple of their Command & Staff College instructors (equivalent).